Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche Penske leads as nightfall – and rain – descends

Porsche Penske’s Nicholas Tandy leads the race as nightfall -and rain – begins to cover the 24 Hours of Le Mans, following a number of incidents. 

How the first quarter unfolded…

As the session ticked over, rain entered the chat to spice up an already-action-packed Le Mans race. While the rain was light initially, it quickly fell heavily on some parts of the circuit. Some areas of the course remained dry while some were drenched and it became a case of survival for the drivers who ventured through the wet areas.

Cadillac Racing’s Scott Dixon drove his hypercar through the first soaked section of track, at the Circuit de La Sarthe, and quickly aquaplaned off the circuit. He was fortunate to see his car skim its nose across the barrier. However, other drivers were not so lucky as they aquaplaned and crashed off the circuit.

Due to the mixed conditions, race control deployed the safety car to keep everyone on the circuit. During this time, a number of drivers peeled into the pit lane to swap their slick tyres for the wet weather compounds.

After the round of pit stops, Peugeot TotalEnergies led the pack, driven by Gustavo Menezes, ahead of the Hertz Team JOTA (Yifei Ye) and Ferrari AF Corse (Antonio Fuoco).

As the session closed in on its 20-hour mark, the drop-back sequence began once again as race control prepared to get the Le Mans race back to green flag conditions. As the session drove past the 20-hour mark, the race got back underway – led by Peugeot as a number of hypercar drivers peeled into the pit lane.

Porsche Penske’s Dane Cameron was under investigation, after the restart for overtaking under the safety car. As the clock ticked down to complete the fifth hour of the race, Cameron was issued with a drive-through penalty for the incident.

Shortly after Cameron was issued with his drive-through penalty, Ye – who had become the new race leader – binned their Hertz hypercar into the barrier after they lost control of their hypercar on the entry to the Porsche curves. Luckily, the Chinese driver was able to continue on to the pit lane with only significant damage to their rear wing and engine cover.

After repairs, the car was finally released back out onto the track with Will Stevens at the helm. See Ye’s incident below.

Due to the amount of debris out on track, following Ye’s excursion through the gravel trap and into the barrier, the Full Course Yellow was deployed. After five minutes, the debris was cleared away and the FCY was quickly lifted.

Later on, as the session closed in on the 18-hour mark, Porsche’s Cameron was seen down the final third of the Mulsanne Straight on a go slow. Cameron soon pulled off to the side of the circuit but he managed to return to his pit box.

Ferrari AF Corse’s Miguel Molina became the new race leader after Tandy peeled into the pit lane for his scheduled stop, 43 minutes remained of the first quarter of the 24-hour race. But it wasn’t long before Tandy regained the race lead.

After the first six hours of Le Mans racing, Tandy led ahead of both the Ferrari AF Corse cars of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Nicklas Nielsen respectively. In the LMP2 category, Jakub Smiechowski led the race for Inter Europol Competition, ahead of United Autosports’ Oliver Jarvis and JOTA’s Oliver Rasmussen who were second and third in the respective class.

In the third class, GTE Am, Giacomo Petrobelli headed the field for JMW Motorsport as Iron Dames’ Michelle Gattring and AF Corse Thomas Flohr rounded out the top three.

Hendrick Motorsports, in the Le Mans-converted NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro, remained in the race with minimal issues. At the six-hour mark, all three drivers had their own time in the car but it was 2009 Formula 1 world champion, Jenson Button who racked up the most lap time in the early stages.

Ahead of the driver change, which saw Jimmie Johnson get in to start the night-time running, Button had put in a hefty three-hour and 31-minute (41 laps) stint.

18 hours still remain on this famous event, and as nightfall descended onto the iconic circuit – so has the rain.

That’s all for the article: Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche Penske leads as nightfall – and rain – descends!

Read more World Endurance Championship content here:

• Le Mans 24 Hours: Bamber leads as a number of cars crash out
• Le Mans 24 Hours: Buemi leads first hour as Aitken crashes
• WEC: Ferrari dominate Hyperpole to finish 1-2 ahead of Le Mans 24 Hours
• 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari lead hyperpole contenders with 1-2 finish
• Romain Grosjean set to race for Lamborghini in 2023 and 2024

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.